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12/8/2015

Treasurer Josh Mandel Announces Launch of Village of Johnstown Checkbook on OhioCheckbook.com

Momentum Grows for Statewide Government Transparency with Over 410 Local Government and School Districts Partnering with OhioCheckbook.com

Press Release - Ohio Treasurer's Office

COLUMBUS – Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel today announced the launch of the Village of Johnstown checkbook on OhioCheckbook.com. Last year, Treasurer Mandel launched OhioCheckbook.com, which sets a new national standard for government transparency and for the first time in Ohio history puts all state spending information on the internet. OhioCheckbook.com recently earned Ohio the number one ranking in the country for government transparency.

With this launch, taxpayers in Johnstown are now able to view over 17,000 transactions that equal to more than $25.6 million of total spending over the past five fiscal years. The Village of Johnstown is the first village in Licking County to partner with the Treasurer’s office to post their spending on OhioCheckbook.com.

“I believe the people of Licking County have a right to know how their tax money is being spent and I applaud local leaders here for partnering with the Treasurer’s office to post their finances on OhioCheckbook.com,” said Treasurer Mandel. “By partnering and posting local government checkbooks, taxpayers across Ohio are empowered with a powerful tool to hold public officials accountable within their communities.”

“OhioCheckbook.com allows the Village of Johnstown to be ahead of the curve when it comes to transparency while ensuring that our taxpayers can see where their money is going in a searchable and intuitive format,” said Village of Johnstown Finance Director Dana Steffan.

On April 7th, Treasurer Mandel sent a letter to 18,062 local government and school officials representing 3,962 local governments throughout the state calling on them to place their checkbook level data on OhioCheckbook.com and extending an invitation to partner with his office at no cost to local governments. These local governments include cities, counties, townships, schools, library districts and other special districts.

A large coalition of statewide and local government organizations have expressed support for OhioCheckbook.com and local government transparency, including:

Ohio Municipal League

Ohio Township Association

Ohio Association of School Business Officials

Buckeye Association of School Administrators

County Commissioner Association of Ohio

County Auditor Association of Ohio

Ohio Newspaper Association

Ohio Society of CPAs

Buckeye Institute

Common Cause Ohio

OhioCheckbook.com was launched on December 2, 2014, marking the first time in Ohio history when citizens could actually see every expenditure in state government. Since its launch, OhioCheckbook.com has received overwhelming support from newspapers and groups across the state and, as of December 7, 2015 there have been more than 401,000 total searches on the site.

OhioCheckbook.com displays more than $490 billion in spending over the past eight years, including more than 134 million transactions. The website includes cutting-edge features such as:

Functionality to compare state spending year-over-year or among agencies; and,

Capability to share charts or checks with social media networks, and direct contact for agency fiscal offices.

In March, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG) released their annual “Following the Money 2015” report and Treasurer Mandel earned Ohio the number one transparency ranking in the country for providing online access to government spending data. Ohio was prominently featured in the report after climbing from 46th to 1st in spending transparency as a result of Treasurer Mandel’s release of OhioCheckbook.com. Due to the launch of OhioCheckbook.com, Ohio received a perfect score of 100 points this year – the highest score in the history of the U.S. PIRG transparency rankings.

The Treasurer’s office is partnering with OpenGov, a leading Silicon Valley government technology company, to provide residents of Ohio the ability to view and search local government expenditures in a user-friendly, digital format. “Ohio is setting the standard for financial transparency on an unprecedented scale. We are excited to partner with the Treasurer’s office to bring world-class technology to communities large and small across the state,” said Zachary Bookman, CEO of OpenGov.

For more information or to view your local government website, visit the Local Government option on OhioCheckbook.com or click on Johnstown.OhioCheckbook.com.